1. Field of the Invention
It is an object of the present invention to prevent a restrained passenger of a transport system (motor vehicle, ship, train or aeroplane) from submarining in the event of any accident (front-, side-, rear-end collision and/or rollover or pile up/mass collision) or during in-flight turbulence.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
It is known in the prior art to provide for a passenger of a transport system an anti-submarining device in order to prevent severe/fatal injury in an accident.
In order to formulate in single terminology a generalized definition is presented for the proper term:
Definition:Proper Term:“Stiff first transport-systemFloor 6 of the transport system adjacent tomember”a first seat-side SR (FIG. 1) or seat-cushion frame at the first seat-side or mid-tunnel (not drawn) of the motor vehicleadjacent to the first seat-side.“Stiff second transport-systemFloor 6 of the transport system adjacent tomember”a second seat-side SL or seat-cushionframe at the second seat-side or postsection (not drawn) of the motor vehicleadjacent to the second seat-side or side railof the motor vehicle adjacent to the secondseat-side“Seat frame”Seat-cushion frame or seat-backrest frame
In order to prevent whiplash front seats of SAAB 9-5 cars are equipped with active head restraints (rests) that, activated by the mass inertia forces of the upper body-parts (torsos) in rear-end collisions, move up and closer to heads of front-seated occupants. See shortcomings, undermentioned.
In collaboration with Autoliv Corp., the biggest car-supplier in the world, Volvo Corp. has developed WHIPS (Whiplash Injury Prevention System), installed in the front seats of Volvo S80s. Under load of mass inertia forces of a passenger's torso in a rear-end collision the hinge of the seat backrest yields and partially rotates backwards and downwards to facilitate the head rest to intercept the head and the seat backrest, filled with pads, to absorb forces. When a car crashes into the rear section of a S80 and both catch fire, the front-seated passengers and their seat backrests, rotated backwards and downwards, impede the evacuation of the back-seated passengers, who may be severely injured. The front-seated passengers must sit up in order to take further action. Taken as given, the rotated seat backrests cannot be returned to the home position precious time elapses to step out of the car. This raises the question of how the unscathed passengers and/or unscathed back-seated children, exposed to explosion, burn and/or toxic smoke, can evacuate themselves out of the car and/or how rescue workers can evacuate all the severely injured back-seated passengers.
Due to lack of space, in which the SAAB and Volvo protective devices should be installed, heads of rear-seated passengers are unprotected, hence, subjected to whiplash and severe/fatal injury resulting from submarining. For sure, both protective devices remain ineffective in a multi-crash when the front-seated passengers, being submarining underneath their respective lap belt portions, is crushed into death by the airbags, deployed in the front-end crash or falsely deployed in the rear-end crash.
Exemplified in DE 43 36 351 A1 (U.S. Ser. No. 979,938), a pan, moveable along a pair of rails beneath the seat cushion, is activated in a rear-end collision and moved out therefrom to intercept a submarining passenger when falling down therefrom. Ref. to EP 0 403 072 A2 (U.S. Ser. No. 364,765) a pair of U-shaped ramps is built in a rear seat. Each ramp comprises two longitudinal members, both fastened to the vehicle floor, and a lateral member, which, arranged along the front portion of the rear seat, intercepts a submarining passenger in a rear-end collision.
Both anti-submarining devices can never prevent severe/fatal injuries linked to great belt force, deployed or falsely deployed airbags, different weights and/or different body proportions.
When a Ford Mondeo, swerving on a road outside the city Idstein, crashes twice into a barrier and finally into a bus, the face of an obese female driver, submarining, is fractured and crushed by the airbag into her skull. In a real-world accident at far higher speed and strong yaw-acceleration great rotatory- and longitudinal-acceleration dependant forces (FIGS. 4, 5) enormously elongate the lap belt portion underneath which the belted passenger submarines in the direction “ZE” due to the limitation of the belt pretensioner which can only retract the seat belt up to 30 cm. This accident report is incorporated herein.
Any belted passenger, lying in a sleeping position ref. to DE 37 41 831 C2 (FIG. 7), submarines when being loaded by great mass inertia force “Sy” in the direction “ZE” in the event of accident.
In view of foregoing shortcomings and deficiencies, there is a need to ensure the restraint of any passenger as well as the operation of the anti-submarining devices in any accident.